


Multiplying

by FrostOverlord



Category: Guardians of Childhood & Related Fandoms, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Bunny is amused, Jack's worried, M/M, Oh look civil conversation how did that happen, The elves are plotting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 19:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2633348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrostOverlord/pseuds/FrostOverlord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>SO THIS HAPPENED.</p><p>This idea was actually sparked a while back after I suddenly and without warning recalled the Bug's Bunny cartoon "The Big Snooze." Specifically, a scene in which there's a pun on rabbits "multiplying"... with a calculator.</p><p>It was silly, and hilarious, and suddenly my brain connected that to the elves and Jack being the only one to notice and that was it. My muse died about halfway through initially, but she cast revive on herself about a day ago and I came back to do this thing. Turns out it was North's fault. Who knew?</p></blockquote>





	Multiplying

“They’re plotting something.”

Aster almost jumped at the suddenness of the declaration from an otherwise silent Jack, nearly marring the sketch he had been working on with an out-of-place mark. It was the first time Jack had spoken at all during this time before the Guardian’s now-monthly meetings, usually electing to sit at the window seat and stare silently at the polar landscape or create little shapes with his frost on the glass while they waited for the others to arrive. Aster had initially been surprised at how early the winter spirit showed up, and had been even more surprised by how quiet he was as they waited. Since those first few meetings after Jack joined them though, he’d gotten used to these uncharacteristic spans of companionable silence that seemed to mark one of the few occasions they didn’t find something to argue with each other about. The sudden change to the routine of several years counting made Aster wary; he had hoped to keep at least one civil interaction untouched by their increasingly tense rivalry.

Looking up from his work, Aster noticed that there was a thoughtful look on the young man’s face, mixed with both the light of realization and a somewhat disturbed expression. For once he wasn’t looking out the window, instead staring at something just outside the open door to the room with an almost burning intensity. Aster closed his notebook, preferring to keep the subject of his sketch to himself, and waited for Jack to continue. When no answer was forthcoming, however, Aster himself spoke up. A simple, if accent heavy “Wot?” to draw the other’s attention. The response was Jack flinching and looking over at him with surprise and confusion dancing across his otherwise debonair features. Apparently, Aster mused, the kid hadn’t realized he’d been speaking aloud.

Tempting though it was to leave Jack to his confusion, however, his expression was turning annoyed. Aster sighed, and in the interest of preserving what little civility they had managed to maintain he clarified. “You said they’re plotting something. Who exactly is plotting what?”

Almost immediately Jack’s expression changed from annoyed to wary, his eyes darting back towards the door. Aster followed his gaze, but from his position on the couch he was unable to see whatever it was Jack was glaring at. After a moment more of silence, Jack frowned and hopped out of his seat, darting swiftly though the air over to where Aster was sitting and dropping onto the couch next to him. He landed on his knees, looking cautiously over the back of the seat at the door.

“Can’t say just yet,” Jack whispered, only just loud enough for Aster’s sensitive ears to pick up even with their close proximity, “they’ll know I’m onto them if they hear me.”

Aster’s ear twitched, and he raised an eyebrow at the boy. “What on earth are you going on about, mate?”

Jack, however, just shushed him and continued watching the door for a moment longer before ducking down and hiding. Aster glanced over to the open door, and to his surprise saw an elf looking back. The little creature waved at him enthusiastically, and Aster raised a paw to half-heartedly return the gesture even as his eyes returned to the winter spirit hiding next to him. What in El-Ahrairah’s name had Jack acting so strangely? Was he sick? Before Aster was able to check himself, his hand had moved to press gently against Jack’s forehead in an attempt to check for a fever. Almost immediately Jack slapped the hand away and directed an incredulous glare in his direction.

“You feeling alright, Jack?” Aster asked in lieu of explanation as he withdrew the abused appendage from lukewarm skin. He wasn’t sure what he was thinking, he had no idea what Jack’s normal temperature even _was_.

“I’m feeling fine,” was the snappily whispered reply, though almost immediately Jack’s gaze shifted towards the back of the couch. Aster glanced back over at the elf, innocuous save an odd, yet harmless interest in the window seat at which Jack normally sat. After one more glance at Jack, Aster sighed and stood up. It didn’t take much to connect Jack’s strange behavior to the elf that had invaded the room, though Aster still couldn’t figure out what he had meant by “plotting something.” The elves were right destructive little mongrels, but Aster doubted any of them, save those few that had once been North’s men in his bandit days, had the mental capacity to “plot” anything.

Still, may as well play along.

“Oi, no need for you lot to be in here,” Aster called as he ushered out first the elf at the door, then a few others that had been hiding in the corners, “Go cause a catastrophe elsewhere.”

Once he was sure that the room had been cleared out, Aster shut the door and turned back to Jack. With the room clear of jingly invaders the winter spirit had straightened up where he sat, still glaring at the door as though it had offended him. Aster shook his head and sighed once again, slowly making his way back to his seat. “Room’s clear now. Mind explaining what this is all about, Frostbite?”

Jack glanced over at him, shifting somewhat nervously and chewing on his lower lip. After around a minute of silence, just as it seemed that Jack wouldn’t be replying, the boy spoke up. “It’s the elves, Bunny,” he said, sending a worried glance in the pooka’s direction, “They’ve been multiplying.”

“Wot.”

Well, it was no wonder Jack had been wearing that disturbed look a few minutes ago. Still, “more elves doesn’t mean they’re plotting anything, Frostbite.”

Jack frowned, whether at the nickname or at Aster’s assessment he couldn’t be sure, and leveled a glare at the pooka next to him. “I don’t mean- though that might be true too, actually, I’m not sure,” the disturbed expression returned momentarily, but Jack quickly shook his head, as though physically shaking the thought from his mind, and continued. “I mean they’re multiplying,” he repeated, “You know, with calculators? Math?”

“Wot.”

Jack nodded, “Yeah, Pretty sure I caught one doing calculus, or trying to at least.”

That was… significantly more worrying that the elves increasing in number. “You sure about that, Frost? ‘Cause I don’t’ think those elves have the mental capacity for addition, let alone calculus.”

Jack leveled an annoyed glare in his direction, “Fairly sure I know Math when I see it, Bunny, considering that I deal with fractals on a daily basis.”

“Alright, alright,” Aster raised his paws in a pacifying gesture, not wanting their relatively peaceful talking to dissolve into an argument, “I believe you, they’re doing math.”

“Really Advanced Math,” Jack griped, waving a single alabaster hand in the general direction of the door behind him.

Aster smirked at that. “What, worried that the elves are going to prank you?”

“What? No!” Jack looked offended at the very notion that mere _elves_ could successfully prank him, “Cottontail, the elves couldn’t prank me if their lives depended on it.”

Aster’s smirk turned downward. Something about Jack’s tone… “You don’t sound very convinced of that, Frost.”

Jack shifted nervously, glancing again at the door Aster had closed the elves behind only minutes ago. “The elves pranking me is about as likely to happen as me willingly wearing shoes,” he stated, frown deepening even as he said the words, “keyword: _elves_.”

It took a moment before Aster caught the train of thought that Jack was going down, but when he did he huffed in amusement, a smile winding its way through the fur of his lips, “What, you think North’s leading the buggers on?”

Jack’s silence was enough of an answer to that.

Aster’s amusement turned to subdued laughter, the quite chuckling rising so easily from his throat that it actually surprised him. You never would have known that only two centuries ago he hadn’t known _how_ to laugh. Jack looked surprised as well, eyes wide in bewildered wonder. After a moment, Aster cleared his throat, smile still in place even through mild embarrassment, and winked at the boy still staring at him as though he’d grown an extra head. “No worries mate, I’ll protect you from the Big Bad Bandit King.”

Jack’s expression immediately turned mock-sour- for Aster could see a hint of amusement within the boy’s cerulean eyes- “Yeah, I don’t need your help, Cottontail. You’re talking to the prank _master_ here.”

Aster simply sighed and shook his head, “You’re underestimating North, Jackie. Once he sets his bull head to something, it gets done. The man’s as much a menace as his elves are sometimes.”

Jack laughed at that, but before he could voice whatever response he had come up with the door behind them opened. Sandy floated in, waving at the both of them as he slowly made his way to his seat at the center of the room. He only made if half way before he registered what he had seen and froze mid-air. A double take and a few jokes at Jack and Aster’s expense later, the others filed in and the meeting began.

Aster blamed Jack when, after the meeting was done, he insisted on messing with the elves. He blamed North for encouraging the behavior, eyes twinkling with the spark of _knowing_. He blamed the elves for building the bloody contraption that sent Jack careening staff-less through the air, stunned and confused by the sudden turn of events. He blamed Sandy for keeping him at the pole longer than he had intended with his silent brand of chatter.

He blamed himself for keeping his word and moving to intercept the boy as he passed by; for falling back to the ground and landing face to furry face.

The inadvertent kiss that followed? Well, Aster liked to think of that as being blameless.

**Author's Note:**

> SO THIS HAPPENED.
> 
> This idea was actually sparked a while back after I suddenly and without warning recalled the Bug's Bunny cartoon "The Big Snooze." Specifically, a scene in which there's a pun on rabbits "multiplying"... with a calculator.
> 
> It was silly, and hilarious, and suddenly my brain connected that to the elves and Jack being the only one to notice and that was it. My muse died about halfway through initially, but she cast revive on herself about a day ago and I came back to do this thing. Turns out it was North's fault. Who knew?


End file.
